P. Schaller

Let’s praise God for a few minutes. Thank you, Lord. Praise God. Let’s praise him for a minute with your mouth. Can you say praise God a few times? Halleluiah!

Here’s one thought before you sit down. When Mary had the baby, we could say this was the event. The baby was born but what did she know? What did the average person know? Mary knew more. We call that super history. Mary knew this wasn’t just a natural thing. She knew more. The point is: what do you know in life? A lot of people live life and they have a limited understanding of this life. It’s their paycheck, sandwich, bed, TV, NFL football team, friends, relationships, broken heart, fear about the future. The average person has a limited knowledge about life. Why did you come here today? Because I want to learn something. Turn to your neighbor and say that. What are the possibilities of me learning something? I want to learn something. That’s why I’m here. What do I want to learn? God, grace, truth, about God. Closing this part. We’ll be dismissed. No, wait a minute! I want to learn something. I want to know God. I want to catch a glimpse. I want to get fixed on the spiritual, the eternal, the invisible. As we will teach this morning, there is this – we won’t say it now. We’ll keep it for later. That’s that. The Bible says clap your hands all ye people. Let’s go. Then it says lift up holy hands, and then it says greet one another by name. Do you know the name of the person next to you? So, last one it says this, this is the big one. Last one is greet one another with a holy kiss. Go ahead.

Php. 4, I love the spirit of the – P. Steve, good to see you and Michelle. I just love listening to that music. It was beautiful, wasn’t it? I enjoyed it so much. My youngest sister, Karen and her husband Artie are here taking care of my mom. I mentioned it a number of times. The Normans went up to Marlboro to be with P. Bailey and Jessica. It’s so good to have Artie and Karen here and my mom. Great. I go to Russia the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow night is New Year’s [eve]. You can come for all of it or part of it. We’ll celebrate into the New Year. Encouraging in the core. That’s our message this morning. We’ll speak about the core of the believer. We will do this. Pray for us as we are in Moscow. The Russian speaking GG churches…I really am concerned about it that it would be not just anything less than the manifestation of God. I don’t care about having meetings unless what? God shows up. God shows up. Wow. We are there three days and then go to Finland. Again the same thing. I’m concerned about it that the Spirit will speak to us in Finland.

I’m saying this because we are a team. Our church is different in a way. We have been for years training people in the faith. An amazing work of grace has happened amongst us. All of us so miserable failures, miserable, nothing. Have you ever worked hard for something and seen it fall apart? Ever worked all your life and saw it fall apart? What didn’t fall apart? God didn’t fall apart. What didn’t fall apart? The church. Sometimes the church does fall apart. It does and it doesn’t. I work all my life and see it start to come unraveled. What doesn’t? The core.

When Mary found out she was pregnant, the angel spoke to her – remember in the short history Joseph had four dreams. He was telling her and listening. The shepherds came and gave the report of the angels. The magi came and all of these elements and Simeon and Anna and Elizabeth. What did Mary have? A little knowledge in the core of her life. She didn’t have understanding of where is this going? Where will we live? How do I explain it to people? What does my husband think of me? What does he really think about me? What is really happening in my life? In a way, all of us are like this. We do not know a lot. I don’t know. Sometimes when your world unravels, it may be good for us. I don’t like it or want it but I have felt it. I’ve gone by myself in some back closet and gotten on my knees and said I really never did anything anyway and whatever I would build isn’t the point. Who you are and what you are doing and what you say is the point.

Php. 4. I want you to notice a couple things here. In the book of Philippians, Paul is in jail. The dots are representing his soul (diagram). Paul is in jail. Maybe in Rome in jail. Could be in Caesarea in jail. Anyway, he’s in jail. Nobody really wants to be in jail, generally speaking. Some of you might think it’s a good idea. I get free meals! He was in jail but he was saying something very important in this chapter, in the whole epistle. “I have learned.” This is chapter 4:11. I think the first line, “not that I speak in respect of want,” – what I am lacking. I’m not talking about what I am lacking. I’m not whining. I’m not talking about what I lack. I’m not saying poor me. I’m in jail. He’s not saying I am a victim. I have been mistreated. He’s not saying when I was brought up as a child, I was denied this privilege and that privilege and haven’t had a normal upbringing, and I don’t have any money. He’s not saying poor me. We were evangelizing and P. Aiden and I met some folks and they were saying this. Not literature. What do you want to give us? We understand that can be the case in life for people. That’s not what Paul is saying. I am in prison but I’m not speaking as though anything is lacking because I am learning.

We could draw it this way. In my core, I have Christ. I have the Spirit. We have taught in this Christmas season about Mary what did you know. We have come to the conclusion Mary knew something in her core. But she didn’t know a lot. I don’t need to know a lot. I just need truth in my Spirit. If there is truth in our Spirit, we are free. Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth with set you free. You’ll be free. Paul is saying not that I speak as though I lack anything for I have learned. That’s where we can park this morning. I have learned. Have you learned anything? I know you have. I see it. The families that have a disabled child and some in our assembly here and you see them in the market and on the street. These families that have a disabled child and they are serving their child and family in a way that is amazing to me. It’s amazing how much they do. It seems they have learned. They are learning. If you have a job, you are learning. If you don’t have a job, you are learning. If you are married, you are learning. If you are not married, you are learning. If you are married twice, you are learning. If you are young, you are learning. If you are old, you are learning. If you lost a job again and again, you are learning. If you have the same job again and again, you are learning. If in a school or the family, you are learning. If you are sick or very healthy, you are learning. But what are we learning? The shift from the dotted line to the core is what you and I really need. The shift from the anxieties and the worries of life to the core, that’s what this is about. This is what Paul is saying.

If you go to the previous verses, vs. 4. Php. 4:4, I don’t know what that means. Rejoice in the Lord always? I know that verse all my Christian life. It’s one of the first I memorized because it’s so short! What? Rejoice in the Lord always. I want to say you can’t do it except the H.S. is the – the Father and the Son and the H.S. are three persons and two of them we talk about all the time, the Father and the Son. The Son said he would go to the Father and they would send the Holy Spirit and he is God. God doesn’t have anxiety. God doesn’t have fear. God is not guilty. God is not confused. God is humble. God the Holy Spirit dwells in us. God the H.S. is in us and our person is relating to God. We have an anointing and the anointing knows all things.

1 Jn 2:27 we don’t need that any man teach us. The Greek says PSUKIKOS man, soulish man. We don’t need a soulish man to teach us. A soulish man would go from the dotted line to dotted line. He would only speak of Fox News, the weather, finances on Wall Street, and children and houses and have a lot of concern and worry in life. How do I succeed? We have a picture of it as a metaphor. It’s this big machine. I think it’s a big earth moving machine. There are two little men down there on the bottom left, the white shirt. What does it represent? It represents my big life, my big heavy hard to move slow moving life. My feelings, my victimization, my fears, my anxieties and worries. My big life. They say the suicide rates have increased in the U.S. by 25% in a 20 year period of time. That’s a lot more people taking their life. That’s a lot of foolishness. A lot of living that is very complicated, heavy, strong, hard to move and there are Christians and myself wanting to learn this that come into churches and come in like this machine and go out like this machine. “Nobody understands how heavy and complicated and weighty my life is.” That’s not the core of my life. That’s the flesh of my life. My life is so important to me. I don’t dare lose it. I have to keep it. My life is so big and strong and complicated nobody understands me. Paul said rejoice always. It’s impossible for me to rejoice when my life is representing my past, how bad it is. My past. How many failures. My whole life. You have a core that Christ gave you and is Christ in you. You and I have to learn. I want to say that again. I have to learn to get rid of this thing. I have to learn to live another way. I have to get light. The Spirit of God is more like this. (It’s a picture of a feather). Rejoice in the Lord always. What? As if you couldn’t believe it, he says again I say rejoice. I know you don’t believe me so I have to say it again. Rejoice. This huge life of fear and worry. The fear and worry in this world is incredible. The fear and worry. Even people that don’t have anything to worry about. Their refrigerator is full. Their house has heat. Their kids are healthy. Only they worry that one day it will change. One day I will lose it. It’s not what you and I – you and I, we must learn we have to learn. Let’s finish with this.

Look at verse 12. Everywhere. Turn to your neighbor and give them ten different geographical locations that illustrate the word “everywhere.” Bathroom, attic, cellar, train, bus, water, submarine, boat, business, airplane, family room, living room, car, walking in the woods, in the swamp, in the forest. Everything. In the city, Tokyo, Moscow, London. What happens everywhere?

vs. 12. I am instructed. Am I instructed? It says in all things. In everything. I got a job. I’m instructed. I lost my job. I’m sitting in the parking lot in my car. How will I tell my wife? Everywhere and in all things I am instructed. I am learning. Everywhere and in all things.

I’m standing before King Agrippa in Acts 26 and he gives an answer. Because everywhere and in all things the H.S. is our instructor. He is our teacher. He is our guide. He is our Comforter. He is our counselor. He is the Prince of Peace. Is he the prince of convenience? Or is he the Prince of Peace? Is he the prince of a good life? The dotted lines in our diagram here – the idea is to get the dotted lines and to connect with other people with dotted lines and live the good life. Haven’t you lived long enough to realize the good life is able to deteriorate in front of you? It’s hard to keep your hand on it like a bar of soap and it slips out of your hand. You are able to lose it. Haven’t you found even if you found it, it’s not satisfying?

My life is more like this than it is like this one (the feather). It makes us praise God that we can actually learn and be instructed. What do we learn? God didn’t make us so we would live in fear or worry or anxiety but so we would know him. Knowing him it would resonate in our core. Mary, explain to us how this all happened? I can talk to you about it and tell you the story but you don’t need to believe me because I ponder it in my heart. I know it. Has that happened in your life? You know something that is not known.

Jesus said in Luke 10 the princes of this world and kings of this earth wanted to know what you know but have not found it. They wanted to see what you can see but they don’t know it. We have a kind of wealth that is unique. It didn’t come from us. It came from the lightness, the movement, the love, the nature of an easy yoke and a light burden. When you have tasted that Holy Spirit feather, praise and worship, you come back to it. You say I want it. You come back in your heart. I want it. I want to sit in the church and have the Holy Spirit speak to me. I never stop learning. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to be abounding and to suffer need. He was able to learn like in our diagram something about this. I know what it’s like, the dotted line and the core life. I know what it is. I am in this and I am in this. When I am burdened in my heaviness and my fear, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me. Teach me and show me and lead me and guide me.

The Bible is filled with examples of men and women who struggled in their life but when they believed and trusted, there was a clear sound from the core. That’s church life. Church life is that one. We are coming into the year 2019. I just started learning how to write 2018 and now I have to shift to 2019. I better be practicing 2020. It’s only a winter and a summer and 2020. Those numbers are new numbers for us. As we go into those times, I need to know that though he slay me, I can trust him. I know all things work for good though I can’t see it. I’m called to live by faith in the good times and the bad. I’ve learned not to be a victim but rely on God and he’ll teach me how to think. Thank you for your gift. I appreciate your gift. You should have done it earlier. But I have learned in every situation, not to be a victim and grumpy and angry and disappointed how you have failed me. The H.S. dwells in us so we can be a different kind of people, a unique people, always thankful. Looking for opportunity to serve. We are not victims. We are givers and servants. We have learned it because God lives in us. Amen.